Saudi man divorces wife over WhatsApp

Man later said that messages were sent by accident, but judge approves divorce anyway

(Photo for illustrative purposes only)

By Staff writer

Mon 30 Sep 2013 01:32 PM

A Saudi Arabian man divorced his wife of ten months over the smartphone messaging service WhatsApp, it was reported, despite later admitting that he had sent the texts by accident.

According to Saudl daily Okaz, the unnamed man’s wife headed straight to court in the city of Madinah to show the messages to a judge after receiving them.

“The judge considered the message as an official divorce as the word was mentioned three times. He approved it and granted the wife a divorce although the husband told court that he did not mean to divorce her,” the newspaper said.

Last year it was reported that a Saudi man divorced his wife because she had a Twitter account without informing him.

The man in his 30s asked his wife to cancel her account and then decided to divorce her after she refused to do so.

The wife went to her parents' home and efforts to reconcile her and her husband include an agreement where he will pay his wife to delete her account.